Belongs within: Strigiformes.
Tyto is a cosmopolitan genus containing the barn owls and grass owls. Tyto species have a heart-shaped facial disc and legs longer than their tail, with feathers down to the feet, short thigh feathers and a serrated comb on the claw of the middle toe.
The barn owl Tyto alba has been treated as one of the most widespread of all birds, with populations on all continents except Antarctica, but some classifications divide barn owls between a number of species, such as the Australian barn owl T. delicatula and the American barn owl T. furcata. The name ‘barn owl’ derives from their common usage of barns as nesting sites.
The grass owls include the African grass owl Tyto capensis and the eastern grass owl T. longimembris; these are long-legged species adapted for hunting in high grasslands. The eastern grass owl is an Indo-Australian species with ochre patches on the upper wing at the base of the primaries (Arlott & Perlo 2021). The masked owls T. novaehollandiae and T. castanops of Australia are similar in appearance to the barn owls but larger and more heavily built (Morcombe 2003).
Barn owls and such
Published 17 July 2013
I have no idea where the ‘wise old owl’ stereotype originally came from. Perhaps it simply originated from their appearance: their broad faces, sedate manner, and slightly supercilious half-lidded gaze (those last two, of course, only applying under the circumstances most people would actually see an owl: as a half-asleep night-dweller rudely awakened during the day). Whatever the cause for their associations, owls are one group of birds that have commonly featured in popular culture. The Eurasian barn owl Tyto alba is one owl species that has long held a particular association with humans. Owls mostly do not build their own nests, but make use of suitable hollows and crannies that they find ready-made. The preferred food of barn owls is small mammals such as rats and mice (though they will not turn up their beaks at alternative fare such as reptiles or large insects when their favourite is not available). Put these two facts together, and human constructions (i.e. barns) can be paradise for a barn owl: ready-made secluded nesting spots in the roof-space, and a steady supply of rodents attracted to stored foodstuffs and/or refuse.
The European barn owl is just one species in the genus Tyto, within which König & Weick (2010) recognised 25 species from around the world. While some Tyto species, like T. alba, are found over a wide range, others are found in restricted localities (many on particular oceanic islands). Some are very poorly known: the Taliabu masked owl Tyto nigrobrunnea from Indonesia was described from a single specimen in 1939, with only a handful of sight records since to attest to its continued existence. The Itombwe owl Tyto prigoginei of central Africa was similarly unknown between its initial description in 1952 and the mistnet capture of a live female in 1996. Prior to its transfer to Tyto by König & Weick (2010), this last species was included in the genus Phodilus, the bay owls, which is the living sister group to Tyto. Together, these two genera form the family Tytonidae, separate from all other owls in the family Strigidae. Tytonid owls differ from strigid owls in a features such as having the inner and central toes of the foot similar in length (versus the inner toe being distinctly shorter than the central one in strigids), with the central toe being serrated on the underside. The species of Tyto have a distinctly heart-shaped facial disc (that of Phodilus species is almost reminiscent of Hello Kitty). Many Tyto species, such as T. alba, prefer open habitats, but some, such as the sooty owls Tyto multipunctata and T. tenebricosa of eastern Australia and New Guinea, inhabit rainforests. The smallest Tyto species are T. prigoginei at about 24 cm total length and the Galapagos barn owl T. punctatissima at about 26 cm, and the largest is the Tasmanian grass owl T. castanops, reaching up to 55 cm in length and about 1.25 kg in weight.
Other extinct species would have also probably broken the 1 kg mark. Tyto species have a long fossil record, going back to the Middle Miocene European species T. sanctialbani (Kurochkin & Dyke 2011). Tytonids of now-extinct genera had been abundant in Europe before that time, but Mlíkovský (1998) suggested that they had become temporarily extinct there in the Early Miocene, owing to a gap in the fossil record. Tyto sanctialbani was similar in size to the modern T. alba (Mlíkovský 1998), but a number of giant fossil barn owls are known from islands around the world. The largest include Tyto pollens and T. riveroi in the West Indies (the Bahamas and Cuba, respectively), and T. robusta and T. gigantea from Gargano. Gargano is a peninsula of southern Italy that was a separate island during the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene, at which time it was home to a distinctive endemic fauna including such animals as the absolutely insane small ruminant Hoplitomeryx, which possessed both a crown of five spike-shaped horns and long dagger-like canines. It has been suggested that this over-exuberant armature had evolved as a defence against Gargano’s main predators, an assemblage of raptors including the aforementioned Tyto species. The larger of the two, T. gigantea, was about twice the size of a living European barn owl, and perhaps larger than any living owl (Ballmann 1976), though it was more gracile in build than the largest living Bubo species. Ballmann provides measurements for leg bones of T. gigantea and not wing bones, but if we assume similar proportions to a modern barn owl then we’d be looking at a wingspan for T. gigantea of about two metres. That, I submit, is enough to scare seven colours of crap out of any number of small mammals.
Systematics of Tyto
<==Tyto Billberg 1828 (see below for synonymy)CC10
|--+--*T. alba (Scopoli 1769)CC10, BKB15, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
| | |--T. a. albaCC10
| | |--T. a. affinis (Blyth 1862) [=Strix affinis]M-PG70
| | |--T. a. erlangeriT72
| | |--T. a. guatemalaeFS55 [=T. perlata guatemalaeS18]
| | |--T. a. guttataRN72
| | |--T. a. hellmayri Griscom & Greenway 1937PB96
| | |--T. a. insularisMS55
| | |--T. a. luluFST81 [=Strix flammea luluS13]
| | |--T. a. poensis (Fraser 1842) [=Strix poensis]M-PG70
| | |--T. a. pratincolaL81
| | |--T. a. stertensA72
| | |--T. a. thomensis (Hartlaub 1852) [=Strix thomensis]M-PG70
| | `--T. a. tuidara [incl. *Glyphidiura perlata, *Strigymnnhemipus perlatus]CC10
| `--+--T. delicatula (Gould 1837)BKB15, CC10 (see below for synonymy)
| `--+--T. bargeiBKB15
| `--T. furcataBKB15
`--+--+--T. capensis (Smith 1834)BKB15, M-PG70 [=Strix capensisM-PG70]
| | |--T. c. capensisM-PG70
| | `--T. c. cameroonensis Serle 1949M-PG70
| `--T. longimembris (Jerdon 1839)BKB15, WS48 (see below for synonymy)
| |--T. l. longimembrisG45
| `--T. l. walleriG45
`--+--+--T. castanopsBKB15 [=Strix castanopsCC10, *Dactylostrix castanopsCC10, Tyto novaehollandiae castanopsCC10]
| `--T. novaehollandiae (Stephens 1826)BKB15, WS48 (see below for synonymy)
| |--T. n. novaehollandiaeM03
| `--T. n. melvillensisM03
`--+--T. multipunctataBKB15
`--T. tenebricosa (Gould 1845)BKB15, APB99
Tyto incertae sedis:
T. aurantiaJT12
T. balearica Mourer-Chauviré, Alcover et al. 1980M02
T. cavaticaSWK87
T. deroepstorffiAP21 [=T. alba deroepstorffiT72]
T. gigantea Ballmann 1973 [incl. T. robusta Ballmann 1973]M02
T. glaucopsJT12
T. inexspectataJT12
T. javanica (Gmelin 1788)CC10
T. manusiJT12
T. nigrobrunneaJT12
T. ostolagaBP87
T. rosenbergiiJT12
T. sanctialbani (Lydekker 1893) [=Strix sanctialbani; incl. T. campiterrae Jánossy 1991]M02
T. sauzieriD81
T. sororculaJT12
T. soumagneiJT12
Tyto Billberg 1828 [=Hybris Nitzsch 1833; incl. Aluco Fleming 1822 non Link 1807, Dactylostrix Kaup 1852, Eustrinx Webb, Berthelot & Moquin-Tandon 1841, Flammea Fournel 1836, Glaucostrix Gray 1855, Glaux Blyth 1851 non Rylands 1836, Glyphidiura Reichenbach 1840, Scelostrix Kaup 1852, Stridula Selys-Longchamps 1842, Strigymnhemipus Des Murs 1853, Strix Savigny 1809 non Linnaeus 1758, Ulula Nitzsch 1829 non Cuvier 1816; Aluconinae, Flammeinae, Hybreinae]CC10
*Tyto alba (Scopoli 1769)CC10, BKB15, CC10 [=Strix albaCC10, *Hybris albaCC10; incl. *Aluco flammea Linné 1766CC10, B94, *Eustrinx flammeaCC10, *Stridula flammeaCC10, *Strix flammea non Pontoppidan 1763CC10, *Ulula flammeaCC10, Strix melitensis Lydekker 1891M02, Tyto melitensisM02, Aluco minorF17, Strix orchraceaF17, Strix vulgarisCC10, *Flammea vulgarisCC10]
Tyto delicatula (Gould 1837)BKB15, CC10 [=Strix delicatulusCC10, Aluco delicatulaCC10, S. flammea delicatulaS13, Tyto alba delicatulaCC10; incl. T. alba alexandrae Mathews 1912CC10]
Tyto longimembris (Jerdon 1839)BKB15, WS48 [=Strix longimembrisWS48, T. capensis longimembrisCC10; incl. S. candidaCC10, *Glaucostrix candidaCC10, *Glaux candidaCC10, *Scelostrix candidaCC10, Tyto longimembris maculosa Glauert 1945WS48]
Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens 1826)BKB15, WS48 [=Strix novaehollandiaeWS48; incl. T. novaehollandiae kimberli Mathews 1912WS48, T. novaehollandiae perplexa Mathews 1912WS48]
*Type species of generic name indicated
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